gentlemen. i'm just sayin'. >> you have a good point on that one. hop-along kilburg would have been here but for his turf toe he's recovering from. he'll be back tomorrow. meanwhile, everybody, that's it for "power lunch" for a monday. >> have a great afternoon. "street signs" begins right now. welcome to a very special edition of "street signs." we're kicking off our three-day recovery road trip counting you down to the three best cities in the market over the past year. we're hoping for a little bit of luck of the irish because we have got a wild show for you. i am in a soon to be disclosed location, though some people out there on twitter, i sent out some hints -- very smart. good guesses. mandy, we're going to unveil it. we've got a lot of great guests. this is going to be a very, very fun show. what's going on up north? we're holding down the fort obviously here at the cnbc headquarters. we have a massive show lined up

for you but i want to first of all do our bread and butter -- and that is taking a look at the markets. the nasdaq is doing a little bit better than the others but we're in the red across the board here. after some gains for the three indices of around 3% to 4% over the course of last week. there is some profit taking going on right now. we did of course cross across some key technical levels as well on friday. we're back below 13,000 on the dow and just sitting right on that technical level of 1,400 for the s&p. okay. that's the business side of things. let's get back to the fun. brian, why don't you explain to us first of all about what exactly this road trip is and the methodology of how you came up with the top three cities. >> well, really a team effort here, mandy. thank you very much. yeah, we didn't just randomly pick cities. because then we'd be in barbados or something. right? about a year ago we created city indexes. 23 different metro areas with the nine or ten biggest market cap companies in each area, equal weighted index and let

them ride for a year. on october 31st, we went back and crunched all the data. threw out single best and single worst performing stocks because we wanted a little bit more of a clean result. right? didn't want to have one name that sort of skewed things wildly to the up or downside. we averaged the remaining names and we came down to the one, two and three best cities for the stock market over the past year. over the next three days that's where we are going to be. we are in city number three today, many of you have already guessed it. i'm standing in front of a big stadium which is soon to be filled because our first city in the recovery road trip is -- >> welcome to philly, cnbc. >> it's known for a lot of things. liberty bell. cheese steaks. rocky. even throwing snowballs at santa. philadelphia can also brag that, lately it is one of the three best cities in america for the market.

fill sli ho philly is home to our parent comcast, a company whose stock has nearly doubled over the past year, i might add. it's also got some big-time small and mid caps, like air gas, mfc and ugi. in fact, at our cnbc index, philly area companies posted an average return of 20% over the past year, making it the runner-up to the runner-up and the third best city for the stock market over the past year. of course, philadelphia's home to some great companies, mandy, like comcast. a little company that you might have heard about that you see me paying homage in that piece this morning to the mothership down here in philadelphia. it's going to be a great time. we're all over the place today. but we're here at the lincoln financial field where the eagles play tonight. got a great lineup of guests. kevin volgert, bob doll, stephen

sta starr. we'll talk about whether we will rise above and indeed recover in 20 14. it is going to be a great show. >> a fantastic lineup. but first of all, brian, mary shapiro is out as top gun at the sec. eamon javers has more on who might be her replacement. >> well, big changes over here at the sec. the president notifying folks today in an e-mail that he is going to designate mary shapiro's successor. that's an important distinction of terminology here in washington because that means that by designating -- sitting sec commissioner elisse walter as mary shapiro's replacement, he does not have to go through a bruising senate confirmation bat many which many expect at the same time as the fiscal cliff negotiations could be a big distraction here in washington. elisse walter gets the nomination. she's a sitting commissioner right now. she's been around washington for a long time, been involved with some organizations here in town

over the past several years. she was an acting sec chair during 2009, the transition between the bush and obama administrations. but already people are starting to turn to the legacy here of mary shapiro who took office, as you recall, right in the depths of the financial crisis and right off the fraud by bermy nay do have had been exposed throughout the world with far reaching implications for the sechlt. c and how it governed regulation over financial markets. already folks looking at the legacy of shapiro. s.e.c. pointing out today that they've got a record number of enforcement actions in the past two years. 1,469, to be precise. also huge expanse of dodd-frank rule makings will be part of her legacy here. and response to the flash crash, another item that's going to be long lasting after she leaves this building on december 12 p. exchanges there forced to create an audit trail for the first time. financial historians will be

digging through what mary shapiro's done for years to come. speculation that the president will nominate somebody to succeed her at some point after her full -- she succeeds mary shapiro to fill out that full term which expires in june 2014. a lot of moving pieces. >> eamon javers, thank you very much. staying in washington now, there are just 35 days left to fix that fiscal cliff. congress is back to work after the holiday. they have a lot to do. have they made any progress? >> they haven't really made much substantive progress, mandy. we've had an initial meeting between the president and congressional leaders which was constructive. president called john boehner, the speaker, over the weekend. they talked this afternoon. white house chief of staff is meeting with tom donahue, president of the u.s. chamber. john engler, president of the u.s. roundtable is also at the white house. but the most important thing that's happened so far pending any agreement on details is that republicans are beginning to crack in their absolute

opposition to increases in tax revenue. not tax rates but revenue. here's two senators in interviews over the last two days. >> i agree we shouldn't raise rates but i think grover is wrong whether it comes to we can't cap deductions and buy down debt. what do you do with the money? i want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs but i will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if democrats will do entitlement reform. >> i'm not obligated on the pledge. i made tennesseens aware. i was just elected. i made aware the only thing i'm honoring is the oath i take when i'm sworn in this january. >> both of these senators are saying they aren't going to be browned by grover norquist from americans for tax reform. this is an issue bigger than norquist. the republican party has positioned itself as the smaller government, anti-tax party. but they've lost an election and it appears that republicans in the senate will see about the

house, already to give some ground. >> john, thank you. that's good news. looks like at least some may be ready to rise above the partisan rhetoric. we'll find out. welcome back here. again if you are just joining us, we're at the lincoln financial field in philly, the third best city in the stock market in the last year. another guy that has a brand-new job but is well known to cnbc viewers, bob doll. he's just been announced as chief equity strategist for nuvene asset management. and ken volpert of vanguard based pretty darn close. bob, this is your first interview in your new role at nuvene. my first question is why did you go back to work? what brought you back into the markets? >> the truth is, brian, i miss picking stocks every day. six months not doing it taught me that that's something that's in my blood and i'm thrilled to be back at a place like nuvene asset management where we have a long, good growth road ahead of

us. >> why nuvene? >> i think a perfect combination. i'll be talking about markets as equity strategist but managing money as a portfolio manager. that combination in a firm that has great reputation for integrity, for getting things done the right way. i think it is really strong and their presence in nuveen asset management in municipals needs to be extended to ecpits whiquih nuveen is already good at. perfect mix stock for me. >> new york is certainly the financial capital of the world. but outside here in the sleepy suburbs of philadelphia is vanguard. one of the biggest asset management firms in the world. you guys kind of do your own thing. what's being here bring to you? >> i think philadelphia area is a really great location. it's very close proximity to new york. you could take a train up and be in new york for an 8:30 meeting.

about 1:10 minute train ride or i can be down in d.c. as well. it is very convenient to both financial capitals of the united states. >> have you -- speaking of d.c., have you been in d.c. at all? are you talking to congressmen and women? are you worried at all about this fiscal cliff? >> we are in contact with a number of people down there. i think -- >> what are you hearing? >> we're optimistic that actually something will get resolved. it does seem like the republicans and the president are trying to be somewhat flexible and trying to compromise maybe more than they were doing last year. we're hopeful that we'll be able to get pretty big plan agreed to. it is not all the structure at least be able to create the framework that can be done in 2013. >> let's talk dollars and cents to brian's point, bob. boy, have you picked a time to come back to work. what are you doing when you say the right way? what is the right way for portfolios right now with all this uncertainty looming out there? >> the uncertainty means we're going to have sur moil.

we've seen that. 1,400 for the s&p, give or take a couple of dozen points is where we are and where we will stay until we get some resolution. i think going out and making big bets in any one direction is probably not fruitful until we have some clearer road. the good news is this thing is so big, they can't just sweep it under a rug. they're going to have to do something. otherwise we'll have a recession next year and i think in everybody's interest is to get something done. >> shoep nhope is not an invest strategy and hope was the investment strategy last week when we saw such a gain in the markets over hope of resolution. talk to us in terms of what you should actually be doing if you are an investor right now. >> i think as an investor now you get the big run-ups, take some profits on the double-digit gains you have this year when fundamentals have been mediocre. but when they sell them off hard because there are rumors that nothing's happening in washington, you can nibble away. there are a lot of people with lots of cash out there, as you know. they should take weaknesses and opportunity to add to equities. >> i'm going to wrap up with ken but bob, i want to ask you -- by

wait, congrats on the new big. one year from today, will we be higher in the equity market than we are? >> i believe we will on the back of resolution of the fiscal cliff, although some pain along the way and an economy that's still muddling through but better news out of the emerging markets. >> how much higher? >> we had a double digit gain this year. that was a stretch for the fundamentals. we may not get another double digit next year. but if we can grow with earnings and dividends and get a total return in high single digits i think we'll all be very happy because equities will have beaten virtually everything else. >> ken, do you agree with that view? >> i think i definitely think that if we get a big deal done here in terms of the budget deficit, i think we could have a very good economic growth next year. >> a lot of "ifs" though. if, if, if. to mandy's point, lope is not a strategy. if is not a strategy. >> that's right. i think now the president has

picked geithner to negotiate with the republicans, with boehner. i do think there's good grounds for something to come out of this. i think the simpson-bowles framework i think gives a pretty credible framework that they can work off of. maybe they do some things a little bit differently but if they can get something done of that magnitude, it will be very big for business confidence and for the economy. >> i know our viewers, very smart bunch. they can be a little tough though. right? in their own way. they'll say stock market, it is only up because the federal reserve is priming the pulp. is that true? >> that's a big part of it. that money that the fed is buying these treasuries and now mortgages, that money needs to go somewhere. so it is working its way into risky assets, causing corporate spreads to tighten -- working their way into the stock markets. there's no doubt quantitative easing is actually helping the risk markets. >> if we couldn't get qe4, qe5 -- qe infinity -- >> we have qe infinity right now. there's no deadline.

year earned probably the fed will start buying treasuries with that money they were doing twists with. won't surprise me to see them buy $80 billion a month in 2013. >> mandy, you wonder how much that will account for the mortgage market as well. >> absolutely. i would imagine that what we're seeing is obviously the qe is kind of losing its effect in the market. right? >> no question about it. >> it's not just mortgage market but it's also the stock market as well. they're not getting their bang for the buck. >> qe1 was most factor. qe2 less so. qe3's even slower but we have an economy bumbling along at 2% and earnings growth that's single digits. this is not all bad because it keeps inflation very low. if we can get rid of some of the uncertainty, the one on the hon z who are sohorizon, these very l pe ratios with low inflation could amount in some appreciation.

>> bob doll, thanks very much for joining us first on cnbc. congrats on the new gig. we'll speak with you again. >> thank you, sir. >> ken volbert as well, thanks as well. great to be down in your hometown. >> great city. >> i've eat an ton of cheesesteaks already. >> you can never have too many. you can never eat too many cheesesteaks. come on. >> i am testing that theory. i'm not sure i'm going to make it on my flight tonight because they might not let me on the plane without an extender. coming up, we often hear that rich successful businessmen might move their money. not higher. whatever. if we get high her taxes, we're going to speak with the largest privately held freight forwarder in the united states base around here. about that and other issues. and mr. philadelphia himself, jim cramer is going to join us. he heard we were hear. he said he's got a play. >> he's got a play and he's also got the pom poms out for philadelphia as well. we're debunking the buffett rule.

a look at numbers that could throw some cold water on the oracle's plan. philadelphia's a city of firsts for america. first mint, the first art museum. first library. first zoo. and most importantly, it is the birthplace of the united states of america.

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>> announcer: you're watching a special edition of "street signs." live from lincoln financial field in philadelphia. here now is brian sullivan. >> and welcome back to a very special edition here on "street signs." brian, of course you've done the big reveal. we all know now that you're in philadelphia. there were many people out there in the twitter verse who already guessed it. mind you, my grandmother could have guessed it with all those things you were sending out like big sandwiches and various things. come on, dude! you could have played it more difficult for us. >> no, no, no. you know who blew it? carl quintanilla. he's in trouble when i get back. i tell you why. we did something for squawk on. the streets and we didn't realize that a septa bus drove

by. he's like isn't that a septa bus from philly? carl quintanilla gave us you up. >> next time you got to rise above. who have we got coming up there, brian? >> all right. so we got a guest here. richard phillips, ceo of pilot freight service. the largest privately owned freight forwarding company in the world. >> in the united states. >> i try to give you a promotion. >> i appreciate it. some day. >> you're at 75 different companies and also a member of the ypo, young presidents organization which has a greet relationship with cnbc. richard, pleasure to meet you. >> thank you. >> i assume you are in that 2% bracket we talk about. you don't have to give it up. i'm just guessing, it is a big company. couple hundred million a year in revenue. are you a job creator as well. you're a small business, not really a mid sized businessman. what do you think about the fiscal cliff and how are you adjusting your business plans for next year if at all? >> well, the nice thing about being a forwarder is we're very,

very flexible. our costs flex tremendously with our revenues. we don't really have to make any structural plans. if in fact the politicians don't do what they should do and fix this thing before it starts impacting the economy. >> how would you fix it though? grif give us the road map of what a small business owner wants to see. >> at pilot, i organized two years ago when we were facing the original debt ceiling crisis. we organized local ceos and sent a letter to the entire pennsylvania congressional delegation, senate and house, saying, look, you guys really need to compromise on this. that honestly from a small business perspective is what we need to do. we were very adamant. we said, look, you need, as democrats you need cover. we understand that. you need cover to do the kind of reform we need. as republicans, you need the kind of cover to protect you from grover norquist.

to do what we thinks needs to be done on revenues. the centrist approach has made this country prosperous for hundreds of years and that's the approach we should take. >> are you willing to pay slightly higher taxes to get a year done? >> i would gladly pay higher taxes to get a deal done. >> really. >> yeah, i would. listen, we have hundreds of thousands of trushcks on the ros all the time. we use the roads, we use airports, we need the tsa and the infrastructure to keep the economy moving. i consider it an investment in the things we need do business, the same way i invest if my country every year. one of the things i love about philadelphia -- >> we need better roads. >> we need better roads. we need better airports. >> we do. people don't realize you don't need to repave the entire country. if you look at what's going on, there are bottlenecks, specific ones, and you can get it down to a list of 1,000 around the country. if you fix those bottlenecks you can free up a lot of economic activity. you don't need to repave all of i-95. you got a couple of points around port elizabeth, in down

in the carolinas, around philadelphia that you need to fix. >> i love companies like yours because you are truly leading economic indicators. people don't ship goods that they don't plan on selling. >> absolutely. >> from your view right now, how's the economy looking heading into 2013? >> it's looking strong from our perspective. >> no sign of a recession or slowdown yet. >> not at all. not at all. we do a -- we do lead in a lot of ways. we do a lot of component parts that go into final assembled goods here in the united states. we also bring in a lot of things from overseas. we also lag in some ways. we do a lot of home delivery for online retailers so we see the economy sort of -- on both sides. we look backwards and we look forwards. and we're seeing strong growth especially in that capital equipment, heavy manufacturing which has always been good in this region. it is growing really well. >> that's great to hear. richard phillips, great to meet

you. stay for the game. we cannot, unfortunately. there you go, plandy. he didn't say he was in the 2% but he's a successful guy and he said i will gladly pay higher taxes. little sign of compromise. >> that's what it will get us to the finish line. coming up next, warren buffett once again pushing for higher taxes on him and his uber rich friends. but do the rich really pay less than the middle class? we're going to break all the numbers down for you coming up next. don't go away. in 1930, pat's king of steaks invented what's now known as the cheesesteak in the 1960s. gino's rolled in. "street signs" rolling at you from the corner of epic deliciousness. [ male announcer ] this is steve.

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welcome back, everybody. well, today we have kick off our recovery road trip. brian is out there on the road himself. of course we've already revealed the first city, which is philadelphia. brian, we've been generating a lot of interest. a lot of people have wrn wribee writing in and are interested in how we came to these cities.

would you perhaps for those who joined us late go through the methodology first of all? >> i am happy do that. i got to watch out, there's some pigeons around here. they're not eagles. anyway, here's what we did. we're not accidentally -- you can leave it to your own imagination about what i mean by that. it was a near miss. here's what we did. i went through and i made i think it was 23 different metro area indexes. basically found the nine or ten biggest publicly traded companies in regions, whether in texas, cities, atlanta, seattle, san francisco, boston, dallas, you name it, chicago, philly obviously. we went through and for a year i tracked their returns. equal weighted. didn't weight based on market cap or anything like that. on october 31st, 2011 we began. october 31st, 2012, this year, we ended. i threw out single best performer around the single worst performer so that they wouldn't skew the means sort of either way. averaged the rest of the companies. and basically came up with the

three, two and one best cities in average aggregate return for the stock market over the past 12 months. number three was philly with a 20% average return over that time. not market cap weighted. we weighted them all. we treated everybody equally here in philadelphia. >> we absolutely do. that's what we're all about, democracy here on "street signs." tomorrow will be number two. then wednesday will be the number one city. also talking of wednesday, also just want to highlight that we threw up a headline a moment ago here on our show that president obama's going to be meeting with more ceos to try and discuss things like deficit reduction, their ideas on the fiscal cliff. that is going to be on wednesday as well. brian, we'll get back to you in just a second. keep on dodging those pigeons or eagles or hawks whatever they are, australian flying kangaroos. okay. let's take a look now at today's "new york times" op-ed by warren buffett. that headline is sure to fuel the debate over taxing the rich. welt reporter robert frank knows

a thing or two about that. he's here with one -- what would you say? important problem? >> just a caveat, a little bit of context to help inform this debate. now the premise of the buffett rule and this op-ed is that the rich pay a lower tax rate than the rest of america. in this op-ed he points out that half of america's top 400 earners pay a rate of less than 20%. that's far less than the official top tax rate of 35%. now the buffett rule he says would restore fairness, make those making $1 million or more pay at least 30% in an effective tax rate. what we fail to mention here, what he fails to mention is that the rich already pay a higher rate than the rest of the population. when you look nationally. the effective tax rate -- that's the amount people actually pay -- averages 20.4% for people making $1 million or more. people making $30,000 to $50,000 pay an average rate of 4.8%. people who make between $50,000 and $100,000, they pay 7.8%.

the irs data here is very clear. the more you make, the higher your effective rate. this sounds obvious but the buffett rule implies the opposite. now this doesn't include state, local and payroll taxes. and yes, there are cases where some super rich guy like buffett pays a lower rate than his secretary. but they are the outliers. only one-third of million dollar earners would actually pay the buffett tax since most of them already pay at least 30%. so i'm not saying the buffett rule is a bad idea. but its value and the problem that it solves are largely symbolic. again, i don't take a view on taxes one way or the other. just to better inform this debate. >> robert, it's brian sullivan. i want to jump in on that. i like the point you are making. there's so much misconception about that. both my karnts do taxes for a living, one corporate, one individual. i like what you're pointing out. what also needs to be pointed out is that if you make $75,000 a year, have two kids and own a home, there's a great likelihood you pay zero in net effective

federal income tax. yes, you pay payroll taxes. a lot of people forget that. you hear people say the rich don't only pay this, but they also pay the payroll taxes and state taxes which have gone up over time as well. again not defending it, i've argued for the buffett rule. but we need to be clear -- and as "usa today" pointed out last year, i think it was, about 500,000 households make 1g $00,000 a year paid zero in net effective after deduction federal incoxs the year before. >> it's a very important point. people would do themselves a service and accountants would do us a service if at the end of april we all figured out what percentage we actually pay so when we saw warren buffett or mitt romney paying 14%, 17% we would know what everyone actually pays. >> fantastic stuff, thank you very much. we'll get back to brian in a second. in the meantime, rapid fire street talk with herb up next and why we are refusing to call

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brian is on the road so herb is here for this monday edition of "street talk." we're going to start the day on a downside. >> what's going on here, the company's stock had been zooming up in the wake of sandy. one of the -- actually the largest private equity holder of the company is peeling off about one-third or a little less than a third of their shares, 11 million shares in the company. you have that opportunity, take it. >> shares are up 38% over the past month in the wake of sandy. >> i should tell you you, there are insiders also selling on this as well. moving on this r.i.m. this one has been up 54% in one month. it looks like we're also getting some dueling thoughts on this stock. >> on friday cibc came out. the analyst comes out, puts a market perform in the stock. today an analyst from morgan stanley comes out and says not

so quick, i don't know that i buy the story. in fact says he considers the stock uninvestable over the near term. you get that good clash there. shows you this whole question about blackberry 10. i tell you what, blackberry 10, we'll know what's really going to happen in terms of sales when we see the reviews of the products after the thing really ships. >> it is really make-or-break for this stock. 3-d systems is getting a boost today. they of course make 3-d printers. >> this is a great battleground stock. why is the is to be um today? who knows. though i think i know. i think it is up because there was a story just before the holidays that general electric is buying a privately held 3-d printer maker. this is starting to hit the market. but what you have is the battleground going on. this is a company that basically is going after its critics. there was -- i want this mention this. company held a conference call to respond to critics and did one of those we're seeking legal -- legal ramifications on this thing to see what we can

do. >> when you ask who knows? herb knows is the answer to that one. let's move along to medical devicemaker boston scientific. is this getting a vote of confidence? >> interestingly enough, this stock can't get out of its own way certainly over the past few years, ever since they bought the stent company. it's been a tough company. over the past four or five days there have been two recommendations, including one today from an analyst buying the stock. an independent analyst out in san francisco last week told me he's buying it because of a number of reasons he sees. very favorable reasons here. >> back in the day, what, 2004, it was a $45 stock. when you think about -- >> to $5 stock. >> herb, this is one of your old favorites. we put it in there. lots of things going on with netflix. >> what's interesting today, gradie inine ining analytics re d rating on earnings quality.

they say they believe netflix is reducing marketing activities to preserve overall company povtabilitpov profitability. >> herb, thank you. today is cyber monday but we've completely banned those words here on "street signs." we're going to call it dotcomers day. what are numbers so far? >> our latest update from ibm, it looks as if online sales are improving throughout the day. not surprising as folks get to work, settle in at their computers, take a browse or so. online sales are up 24% year over year at this point in the day. we saw a big spike at lunch. that traffic has steadily increased. we'll probably see a little bit more at dinner time when folks head back home. >> i've actually seen some stats that about a quarter of employers have fired someone, one of their employees for doing unauthorized or what would you call it non-work related activity online today. who are going to be some winners and losers? >> when we look at the latest

google searches we can get some idea about what folks are shopping for and what folks are buying right now. at least where the interest is. nexus 7 is up at the top. just generically, laptop has been a big search term. kindle fire, ipad mini, not surprising. retailers are getting a lot of play -- walmart, best buy, amazon. those are some names that again are getting played today on cyber monday and also did well on black friday weekend. remember this blend is getting hard to separate where black friday ends and where cyber monday starts. >> in terms of some of the discounts out there, do they feel that because of the uncertainty looming still in the economy that the discounts are more aggressive than normal? >> it is hard to say because black friday discounts are always really aggressive. as soon as one retailer puts up a very aggressive price point, there are going to be very hard pressed to stay the only one at that price level. if walmart puts up a low price, target is morals going to match it. if they don't match it right there, they have a price matching program that retailers can get to do it. the amount of gift cards bought

online so early -- because most of the time we think of that as a last-minute gift. however, i think a lot of consumers realize they'd rather spend their money on a gift card knowing that you can pick out what you want so it is not a complete waste. >> i hate the gift card nap says they haven't really spent the time trying to work out what i really like. >> it is amazing the number of the gift cards. >> it is the lazy gift. >> i'll take one. >> thanks, courtney reagan. coming up, we'll go one on one with a philly hometown hero. and brian has more flavor from philly as well. guys likedom who have been here his whole life certainly emblematic of philadelphia. but we've also got the new entrepreneurial class coming up pem's be your guest on "street signs." let's go get a cheesesteak,dom. ♪

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coming up on "closing bell," research in motion is showing signs of life after being left for ed earlier this year. is this resurrection for real or not? also the top democrat on the house's tax writing committee is warning his fellow dems that allowing the economy to fall off the fiscal cliff would be a huge mistake. coming up. petsmart ceo explains how he's trying to win a big slice of the $5 billion millions of americans spend every year on their pets with the holiday season. that's a lot of dog biscuits. michelle caruso-cabrera is with me today. don't say we didn't warn you. i am down here in philadelphia as part of our "recovery road trip." mandy is all warm and toasty in inglewood cliffs. but we're having a good time here. americans may spend millions on their pets but they spend a lot more dining out every year. man in the philadelphia dining

scene, stephen starr, 30 restaurants overall, 19 in philadelphia. they now employ more than 1,500 people. real pleasure sglp thanks for having me. >> thanks for having us here. you're the guy in philly. you've grown like wildfire in 17 years. i'll give you a chance to tout your hometown here. everybody talks about new york as the culinary capital. make the case for philadelphia. >> philadelphia is a fantastic place to do business for many reasons. one is the proximity to new york. we're only 90 miles away, an hour and ten minutes by train. and the same dna exists here as new york except less people and a little less money. but the basic vibe of new york is here. we're almost like another borough. >> how much were you guys hit during the financial crisis and how much have you recovered since then? >> philadelphia wasn't hit as much as new york was because we have restaurants in new york. it wasn't as severe because our

core industry is hospitals, medicine, pharmaceuticals, stayed pretty solid. i think the recovery is stronger in new york, however, but we're fine now. >> how's your average -- is your average ticket back to prerecession levels? >> our average ticket is absolutely back to prerecession levels. >> how have attitudes changed in the past year? things have gotten better. people eating more, drinking more, spending more? >> i think everyone has a sense of optimism in philadelphia. i don't have a sense of gloom or dreariness. with the election over with, i think people are ready to make and spend money. >> you're a job creator. you take a chance, you take a financial risk, you open a big restaurant. you hire a bunch of people. we are looking at a fiscal cliff. looking at a lot of concern about 2013. that's not stopping you from opening new restaurants in d.c., new york, philadelphia. how come? >> as a matter of fact, during the recession, we opened ten restaurants. >> during the recession. >> during those two years. we opened ten restaurants.

my opinion is we're not looking at a cliff. we just keep on going forward and building our business. >> you're not changing your behavior at all based on what we're seeing from congress or not seeing from congress. >> we're concerned about the health care bill a little bit and what its impact's going to be on our expenses. so yes, our behavior could change a little bit from that. and we're not spending as much money building out restaurants. new york budi con cost $17 million. as far as glowing and actually doing restaurants, we're more excited now than ever. >> stephen starr, ceo of starr restaurants, real pleasure, job creator. ten restaurants during the downturn. i know you are a big buddacongoer. >> they're absolutely fantastic. but you might think that i'm all posh and all and always eat at places like that, but give me a cart or truck stop with a philly cheesesteak and i'm absolutely

completely happy. by the way -- >> she says buddha kl conrocks. >> he's suddenly my favorite restaurant ur. what you're looking at here is a caviar vending money. that's right, a caviar vending money in three malls around l.a. prices start at $50 and top off at $500. when you absolutely need a truffle late at night. coming up next, he's a favorite son in the city of brotherly love and he means business when we come back.

welcome back to our "recovery road trip" live from lincoln financial field in philadelphia where eagles play tonight. joining us now is a man who needs no introduction. a man you all know, a man you may not know is from philadelphia, loves his eagles, as bad as they are, and will be

here tonight. the one, the only, the mad man himself, jim cramer. jim, why am i here and you're back there? >> i am so proud of this series. what you are doing is great. steve -- i mean, the restaurants, he turned around the city. it wasn't just he built a great restaurant chain. the city is famous for what i've done. >> not going to be pat's, now -- >> i went from pat's to 1960 to 1975. my father made me switch to gino's and i've been faithful ever since. >> i had one for breakfast, i'm not kidding, sadly. part of this series was to identify and uncover companies maybe our viewers were not that familiar with. i built these city index. we know comcast did great. the five best cities year-over-year in our philadelphia index, october 31st to october 31st.

comcast you know. but look at that. fmc, lincoln national, airgas and crown holdings and ugi. any thoughts on these companies? >> i thought mfc, the old food machinery company is a couple different companies. chemical, agriculture. it's worth an immense amount if they wanted to break it up. my favorite company on that list is airgas. sh this is a company that turned down a bid from air products a couple years ago saying they could get that stock, which was in the 60s, they could get that stock to 80 much faster than the deal, which would have been $8 or $9 below that. sure not, they by far bested that. peter mccall is one of my favorite chairman now, one of my favorite ceo of all time. this company is a fantastic grower. this is a helium company. they do a lot of business with health care. it is a remarkable company. and it's not done going up.

>> yeah, you know, you also had ugi, fmc. a lot are industrial names. we tend to think of philly with comcast, biotech, our freight guest said something great. he said when technology slows down, industrials pick up. when they slow down, technology picks up. it's a pretty diversified city, philadelphia, i'm finding. >> a lot of health care, too. the old crown cork and seal, a company we revered growing up, now crown holdings, to me it is a better company than illinois tool works which a lot of people feel is in that same container business. i've revered the people from crown because they have been fabulous to the city of philadelphia. the philadelphia company, not like minneapolis company, they do love philadelphia and they do a lot of charity work which makes it so we're loved. we don't love companies in new york the way they love their companies in philadelphia. >> all right, before i let you go, jim, you guys are underdogs

at home tonight to the carolina panthers, with a losing record. what's your prediction on the game? i won't be here. you may be. >> you're in the town of rocky, and i have to give you the same prediction mr. t. gave rocky. the prediction is pain. >> i'll leave -- i can't match that, jim. i'll leave -- yo, cramer! good luck to your eagles tonight. good luck to your dad. coming up after the break, where we're going to be tomorrow to reveal the second best city for the stock market over the past year. one clue as to where we'll be. it has nothing to do with food. it's up after the break. can i help you?

i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. that's right. i've learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. you know we've been open all night. is this a trick to get my spot?

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go to axiron.com. ♪ [ male announcer ] 'tis the season to discover the kid in all of us. enjoy free shipping and great values on your holiday shopping from l.l. bean. one down. the top two to go. join cnbc tomorrow as we unveil the second best city for the stock market over the past year. here's a hint. this city almost had spirit. the road to recovery continues tomorrow on "street signs." okay. >> yeah, almost had spirit. and it's warmer than here, mandy, so that's not a very good clear. it's warmer than here. i have to get on a plane to get here. that's a terrible clue. >> yeah, because anywhere would be wormer than there right now. i saw you there